It’s official – I now work at a standing desk in my home office. I love walking right up to my computer instead of plopping down in a chair. And it’s not just any standing desk, either; my desk is an Ikea hack. It’s fashioned from IKEA bookcases with a keyboard tray added on. It looks sleek and pro, allows me to sit and stand, and cost less than $300. It’s early yet – I’ve only had my new desk {Read More…}

If you could see into the future and knew your strength training workouts would be shut down by a shoulder injury, would you start doing things differently today? Not many people spend time maintaining shoulder health, but a lot of people spend time being injured. Shoulder injuries are ridiculously common, and those of us who lift weights should be focused not only building strength and size but on keeping our shoulders healthy. It’s a relatively delicate joint that we punish {Read More…}

I see a plethora of workouts posted online with high reps schemes – and by high I mean above 25. Some workouts boast reps as high as 100, and I sometimes I wonder about the point of these workouts. To be a badass and say you did it, or…? I’ll get to that in a moment. There’s a lot of confusion about muscular endurance training as it relates to weightlifting – what exactly is it and how is it beneficial {Read More…}

Kettle bells, ahh. As I’ve been investigating and learning their endless applications I’ve also became more and more excited about them. Kettle bells can be used for movements ranging from explosive Olympic lifts to more endurance-oriented Tabata protocols. Many kettle bell exercises provide full-body conditioning, which increase your strength and cardiorespiratory systems simultaneously. So why would I want to share my precious gym time with kettle bells? I’ll never give up traditional lifting, but with all the fun and advantages {Read More…}

I know people who hate crunches and sit ups, maybe as much as I hate overrated military-style exercises that make me struggle awkwardly (like burpees). The fact that some disciplines use them as a test of fitness certainly doesn’t help their reputation, so let’s look at how useful they really are. I don’t mind crunches myself. Once I get into a rhythm, staring at the ceiling in a trance, I actually kind of enjoy them. Crunches aren’t necessarily bad for {Read More…}

Whether you love being active or not, no one wants to end up with an injury. Inactive people get injured more frequently than active people. Those who don’t exercise become deconditioned, and a wrong step, a movement outside normal range of motion, repetitive movements, or carrying too much weight can lead to muscle and joint dysfunction. People who are out of shape and get surgery to fix muscle or joint issues usually are back in pain again in some way, {Read More…}